My parents were married on Memorial Day, 1938. Consequently, May 30th always had a special meaning in our family. Besides the parades, speeches, Indianapolis 500, the opening of the Look Park pool (yes, there was a pool) and a Red Sox doubleheader to watch, we always had a little extra celebration. It was one of the few days they actually took off from work. But I learned early that the real importance of that day was the honoring of all the U.S. military veterans who had sacrificed their lives since the Civil War.
My elementary-school principal, Helen Ryan, taught me the significance of the day. Each year her fifth-grade class would produce a Memorial Day pageant for the entire school to enjoy. It was always a serious production and, though there were usually some variations, the one constant was the singing of the old Civil War song, “Tenting on the Old Camp Ground.” I think of it every Memorial Day, and I can still remember the chorus.
“Many are the hearts that are weary tonight
Wishing for the war to cease.
Many are the hearts looking for the right
To see the dawn of peace.”
I cannot say those plaintive words without a feeling of sadness come over me. I wonder, will we ever see the dawn of peace? During my lifetime, I don’t believe there has ever been a year when the entire planet was at peace. It seems some army has always been attacking another one. Our own nation has been engaged in endless warfare since 9/11 and I foresee no end to it for a long time.
In less than a year, the nation will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the U.S. entering World War I. Many historians feel that is the conflict that began our regimen of endless fighting. It was expected to be a short struggle of two or three months, but instead it stretched into four years and became known as the endless war.
The struggle was horrific in its effect on both the military and civilian populations. Combatants now employed tanks, machine guns, poison gas and airplanes dropping bombs from above. The war also sowed the seeds for World War II, and there has been continuous combat somewhere on the globe since the 1940s.
Most of the chief executives considered to have been our greatest leaders were war presidents. Someone like our own Calvin Coolidge, who tried to bring peace to Latin America instead of sending troops, is considered an ineffective and minor leader. Similarly, the brilliant, and admittedly acerbic, John Adams refused to fight a war against France in 1799 and left office as an unpopular president after one term.
I am no pacifist and I know there are times you must fight. But in my religious education classes I was taught “blessed are the peacemakers.” Perhaps that no longer applies since today you have to act and talk in a bellicose manner to be considered an effective leader. I think it sometimes takes more old-fashioned guts to walk away from a fight than to engage in it. But that’s just me and I don’t write the history books.
I cannot see us ending the pattern of endless war anytime soon. Every new president quickly gets tested by some complex foreign policy issue that may require military action. Whomever gets sworn in next January will find a military-industrial complex deeply embedded in policy-making in Washington, D.C., and with zero interest in the cessation of fighting. The next president will be under tremendous pressure to act tough and make full use of the armed forces.
My parents have long been gone but Memorial Day has kept its original meaning for me. We live in an area where we see the ravages of war daily on our veterans as they walk our streets, sometimes homeless and often depressed. Each time I see a picture of one of them in a wheelchair or using some artificial prosthesis that is meant to be inspirational, I get angry. No matter how much they may smile, those veterans have suffered great pain and their lives have been forever disrupted. We cannot continue to ruin so many lives.
As the old Civil War song said, my heart grows weary at the thought of all this war. The song is more than 150 years old and, sadly, the dawn of peace is nowhere in sight.
Rich Szlosek can be reached at richszlo@crocker.com.